Sydney Cup 2025

Ladbrokes Tip: The Chairman’s Handicap has produced more Sydney Cup winners than any other lead-up race

The 2025 Sydney Cup took place at Royal Randwick on Saturday April 12, 2025 as part of Day 2 of ‘The Championships’ and was won in an impressive upset by Bjorn Baker’s evergreen eight-year-old Arapaho ($20) by nearly three lengths. 

2025 Sydney Cup Results

The 2025 Sydney Cup results and finishing order will be confirmed on Saturday April 12, 2025 and announced below as soon as available.

2025 Sydney Cup winner Arapaho was huge at big odds in the two-mile classic. Photo: Bradley Photos.

• 1st: #2 Arapaho
• 2nd: #20 Waltham
• 3rd: #9 River Of Stars

Trainer Bjorn Baker enjoyed another Group 1 win during The Championships with his veteran eight-year-old stayer Arapaho ($20) proving he could run out the two-miles with a tearaway three-length upset in the 2025 Sydney Cup results.

2025 Sydney Cup Odds

The Sydney Cup 2025 betting odds will be published below as soon as markets on the Group 1 two-mile classic are open.

The Sydney Cup is one of four Group 1 Sydney Autumn Racing Carnival features held on Day 2 of The Championships at Royal Randwick Racecourse on the second Saturday in April each season.

2022 Sydney Cup winner Knights Order. Photo: Steve Hart.

The meeting’s headline race is also the The Championship’s richest – the Group 1 $5 million Queen Elizabeth Stakes (2000m). The Sydney Cup is another lucrative clash offering a total of $2 million in prize money including $1.2 million to the Sydney Cup winner.

In 2020 the Sydney Cup prize money was reduced to $1 million with $580,000 for the winner due to the COVID-19 pandemic but returned to $2 million for the 2021 edition.

Run over 3200m the two mile classic is held over the same distance as the ‘race that stops a nation’ – the Group 1 Melbourne Cup at Flemington on the first Tuesday of November in the spring. Stayers in the Sydney Cup field face off under handicap conditions with the lowest handicap weight being 50kgs, or 48kgs for the three-year-olds. Winners of the Chipping Norton Stakes and Tancred Stakes (formerly The BMW) are exempt from Sydney Cup ballot.

The traditional lead-up to the Sydney Cup is the Group 2 Chairman’s Handicap (2600m) run the previous Saturday and that also offers a ballot and penalty exemption for the Group 1 back at the track the following weekend.

The latest horses to complete the Chairman’s Handicap – Sydney Cup double are the Gai Waterhouse-trained The Offer (2014) and the Ciaron Maher-trained Circle Of Fire (2024).

Sydney Cup Race Info

• Date: Saturday April 12, 2025
• Track: Royal Randwick Racecourse
• Distance: 3200m
• Conditions: Handicap
• Status: Group 1
• Prize Money: $2 million
• First Run: 1862

Sydney Cup Betting

Sydney Cup betting is led each year by the best performing stayers in the Chairman’s Handicap held only seven days earlier on Day 1 of The Championships.

Horses that ran in the first four in their lead-up runs have a top record in the classic and so always feature highly up the Sydney Cup odds as do gallopers with proven two-mile form.

Only four Sydney Cup winners since 1983 have come off a lead-up run outside of Sydney with the former Kiwi-trained mare Etah James (2020) having run fourth in the Auckland Cup across the Tasman, the UK raider Polarisation (2017), Adelaide Cup winner Gallic (2007), and Mr. Prudent (2001) who ran third in a Melbourne Group 3 at Caulfield.

Sydney Cup favourites have a solid record in the race over the past decade with seven saluting for the punters from 2005 – 2025 most recently Circle Of Fire ($5.50 in 2024).

Older gallopers also run well in the race with six seven-year-old winners including Etah James (2020) and Knights Order (2022), two eight-year-old veterans most recently Arapaho (2025), and Who Shot The Barman (2018) winning at nine years of age from 2006 – 2025.

2023 Sydney Cup winner Explosive Jack was excellent posting his first win since a Derby double back in 2021. Photo: Steve Hart.

There was a notable upset in 2021 with Selino saluting at 25/1 to hand trainer Chris Waller a fifth win in the two-mile classic.

In 2023 there was another upset with Explosive Jack winning at Sydney Cup odds of $26. He defeated fellow roughies True Marvel ($151) and the previous year’s champ Knights Order ($16) in a lucrative Sydney Cup trifecta.

The Sydney Cup 2025 winner also jumped at big odds with Arapaho ($20). 

Sydney Cup Field

The Sydney Cup race field attracts the season’s best stayers coming out of the Chairman’s Handicap the previous weekend also held at Randwick.

The Chairman’s Handicap has produced more Sydney Cup winners than any other lead-up race with The Offer (2014) and Circle Of Fire (2024) the latest to do the double.

Earlier, Rosehill’s Group 3 Sky High Stakes (2000m) held in March can be a solid Sydney Cup lead-up but Country Tyrone (2006) was the last to do the double.

The Group 3 NE Manion Cup (2400m) at Rosehill on Golden Slipper Day is another early Sydney Cup lead-up with The Offer (2014) the last to win both races in the same year.

Victorian gallopers meanwhile may have a lead-up into the Sydney Cup field via the Listed Mornington Cup (2400m) in late March.

Sydney Cup nominations close on a Tuesday in early February before first acceptances are taken a month later.

The final Sydney Cup field of acceptors and barrier draw are then out on the Tuesday before the race and often attracts horses that have previous two-mile form in races like the Adelaide Cup in March and the spring’s iconic Melbourne Cup.

2025 Sydney Cup Field

The Sydney Cup 2025 field and barrier draw will be announced by Racing NSW on the Tuesday leading up to race day and published in full below.

The 2025 Sydney Cup final field features a capacity line-up of stayers including the flying Alalcance from the Waterhouse/Bott yard chasing her fourth straight win this prep and Ciaron Maher’s 56.5kg top-weight Duke De Sessa who won the Caulfield Cup last spring. 

2025 Sydney Cup Nominations

The 2025 Sydney Cup nominations close on Tuesday the 11th of February 2025. 

The Sydney Cup 2025 nominations drew 98 autumn stayers with betting on the two-mile classic currently led by Japanese raider Cils Blancs and fellow international Desert Hero from the UK.

Table Credit: Racing Australia.

2025 Sydney Cup First Acceptances

Sydney Cup first acceptances are taken in early March a month after the original nominations and about four weeks out from race day.

The 2025 Sydney Cup first acceptances close at 12:00pm (local Sydney time) on Tuesday the 11th of March 2025. 

Sydney Cup Tips

Sydney Cup tips favour proven stayers with good lead-up form at Randwick or Rosehill, especially those that ran well in the previous weekend’s Chairman’s Handicap.

Horses carrying between 52kg and 55.5kg also make for a top Sydney Cup tip with only three winners since 2000 carrying more than that to victory with Gallic (56kg in 2007), Mourayan (58kg in 2013), and Arapaho (56kg in 2025). 

Three-year-olds have poor form in the race with just two wins since 1983 most recently Tie The Knot (1998) for his first, while the last mare to win was Jessicabeel (2010).

2025 Sydney Cup Tips

Our Ladbrokes’ exclusive Sydney Cup 2025 betting tips and exotic selections on the two-mile autumn classic will be detailed below the week of the race so stay tuned for the stayers to back and sack in this year’s Sydney Cup trifecta.

Mares don’t have the best Sydney Cup record, but 8. ALALCANCE (15) this year is looking a huge chance to be the first since Etah James (2020) to beat home the boys in the two-mile classic. This striking grey daughter of Mastercraftsman is the right age to win as a 5YO and she is absolutely airborne. The quick back-up off her dominant Group 2 Chairman’s Quality win by nearly two lengths here over 2600m suits as she’s fit and firing on all cylinders. Should easily see out the 3200m off of that. She’s won all three this prep and just doesn’t know how to run a bad race. Loves Randwick (3:2-1-0) and, even with a 2kg penalty, gets in on just 52kg here. That’s a nice drop from the 56.5kg she carried with ease seven days earlier. Gets conditions to suit, Tim Clark stays on, and she looks every chance to do the double Circle Of Fire completed last year. Looks very well placed and just needs to get into the right spot from the draw to salute for the punters.

Sydney Cup Form Guide

The Sydney Cup form guide gives punters all the information they need pre-betting including the trainers, jockeys, weights and barriers for all the horses in the field.

Looking at the Sydney Cup lead-up form is important with gallopers that finished top four in their final lead-up runs dominating the race, while the Chairman’s Handicap is the best form line for the two-mile showdown.

Trainer Chris Waller has prepared five Sydney Cup winners in the past decade with Stand To Gain (2011), Grand Marshal (2015), Who Shot Thebarman (2018), Shraaoh (2019), and Selino (2021).

Jim Cassidy is the leading Sydney Cup jockey with three winning rides to date including on the Chris Waller-trained 40/1 roughie Grand Marshal (2015).

The 2022 Sydney Cup form was franked with Knights Order coming back that spring to place third in the Group 1 Caulfield Cup (2400m).

Sydney Cup Form Facts

• The only Sydney Cup winners to finish worse than fourth in their lead-up run since 2006 are Stand To Gain (2011) and Explosive Jack (Tancred Stakes 10th in 2023).
• Only five mares have beaten the boys in the Sydney Cup results in the past 30 years most recently Etah James (2020) and Jessicabeel (2010) a decade apart.
• Five-year-olds won seven of the editions of the Sydney Cup from 2011 – 2025 most recently Explosive Jack (2023).
• In the years from 2008 – 2025 six favourites in Sydney Cup betting saluted for the punters.
• The longest priced Sydney Cup winners in the past 30 years were Just A Dancer ($41 in 1991) and Grand Marshal ($41 in 2015).
• Barrier eight has produced the most Sydney Cup winners (since 1983) with 10.

2025 Sydney Cup Form Guide

A link to our comprehensive Sydney Cup 2025 Form Guide will be provided for punters below the week of the race.

Sydney Cup Records

Below we take a look at some of the Sydney Cup race records like what horse has run the fastest time in the Sydney Cup.

Sydney Cup Race Record: Arapaho set the new record in 2025 winning in 3 minutes 18.31 seconds. 

Heaviest Weight Carried to Victory (since 1970): My Good Man (60kg in 1978)

Lightest Weight Carried to Victory (since 1970): Palace Revolt (48.5kg in 1989)

Sydney Cup Results

Sydney Cup race results in the past 10 years have been dominated by the favourites.

The longest priced Sydney Cup winners in that time however were Arapaho ($20 in 2025), Explosive Jack ($26 in 2023), Selino ($26 in 2021), Grand Marshall ($41 in 2015), and Stand To Gain ($21 in 2011) so upsets are also not uncommon.

Some of the most noteworthy Sydney Cup winners in the past 30 years include The Offer (2014), Jessicabeel (2010), and Makybe Diva (2004).

Past Sydney Cup Winners

Recent Sydney Cup winners and placegetters going back to 2000 are detailed in the below table.

FAQ

Who won the 2025 Sydney Cup?

The 2025 Sydney Cup was won by eight-year-old Lope De Vega gelding Arapaho at $20 for trainer Bjorn Baker with jockey Rachel King aboard on 56kg from barrier 11 to win by 2.95 lengths in a race record time of 3:18.31.

When is the Sydney Cup 2025?

What is the prize money for the Sydney Cup 2025?

$2,000,000

Where is the Sydney Cup 2025?

Randwick Racecourse, Alison Rd, Randwick NSW 2031.